Other forms: freights
Freight is goods carried in bulk by road, rail, sea or air. Rail freight, freight charges, a freight train.
Air freight is the fastest and most expensive and sea freight the cheapest by a very long way, which is why almost everything travels by sea. It is a variant of fraught, which once meant the same thing. Note freighted with, meaning heavily loaded with meaning.
1nounfreightGoods carried in bulk.
“The train carries freight, such as coal and timber, rather than passengers.”
freight is goods in transit.
A variant of fraught, from Middle Dutch vracht, the hire of a ship. Fraught kept the figurative sense.
Proto-Indo-European
*per-
Proto-Indo-European
*h₂eyḱ- — to come into possession of, obtain; to own, possess
Proto-Germanic
*aihtiz — possessions, property
Proto-West Germanic
*fra-
Old Saxon
frāht
Middle Low German
vrecht — cargo, freight; transportation fee
Middle Dutch
vracht
Middle English
freight
English, today
freight
Built from
From Late Middle English freight, freght, freyghtfrait, freit, freyte, a variant of fraught, fraght (“transport of goods or people, usually by water; transportation fee; transportation facilities; cargo or passengers of a ship; (figuratively) burden; ballast of a ship; goods; a charge”), from Middle Dutch vracht, vrecht, and Middle Low German vrecht (“cargo, freight; transportation fee”), from Old Saxon frāht, frēht, from Proto-West Germanic fra- (from Proto-Germanic fra-) + aihti (from Proto-Germanic aihtiz (“possessions, property”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European h₂eyḱ- (“to come into possession of, obtain; to own, possess”)). The English word can be analysed as for + aught, and is a a doublet of fraught. 2
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA